1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing technique that performs the printing using a polish and a colorant.
2. Related Art
In the past, a method is known which firstly forms an undercoat and further performs the printing on the undercoat (for example, JP-T-2002-530229 and JP-A-2005-52984) on a printing medium. Such a method can be used in various printing methods and, for example, can also be used in a case of reproducing metallic colors of various color tones. In order to reproduce the metallic color, for example, a layer of the metallic ink is formed on a print medium, and color ink may be superimposed thereon to perform the printing.
Since the metallic ink is relatively expensive, there is a problem in that a used amount thereof is reduced. Furthermore, when color ink is equally superimposed on the layer of the metallic ink, in a relatively dark portion (a dark region) of an image, brightness (luminance) is increased by a glossy expression effect of the metallic ink, compared to a case of performing the printing only by the color ink. In addition, since the amount of color ink is reduced as the metallic ink is superimposed, the brightness is increased compared to the case of not superimposing the metallic ink. For this reason, in the dark region of the image, there is a problem in that a degree (a gradation reproduction) of a change in brightness drops in respect to a gradation change of the pixel.
In addition, the problem was common to the case of using various glossy inks expressing a texture other than the coloring such as, for example, ink containing the pigment expressing the glossy feeling similar to a pearl gloss, without being limited to the metallic ink that contains a metallic pigment expressing a metallic glossy feeling. Furthermore, the problem was common to various printing apparatuses that perform the printing using the polish and the colorant.